NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – One year ago, Orlando Solar Bears forward Hunter Fejes put his team on his back, scoring two game-winning goals against the South Carolina Stingrays in the ECHL’s South Division semifinals. One of those tallies came late in the first overtime of game three, giving the Solar Bears a commanding series lead that they finished off in a sweep.
When this year’s rematch began, Fejes was a couple thousand miles away, playing for the AHL’s Manitoba Moose. After the Moose failed to qualify for the post-season, Fejes headed south and in his first game in an Orlando jersey in several months, he once again harpooned the Stingrays.
Fejes celebrated his return to the City Beautiful with two goals, the second coming 10:23 into the second overtime, to give Orlando a 4-3 victory in front of an announced crowd of 3,101 at the North Charleston Coliseum. With the win, Orlando regained its home ice advantage by taking a 2-to-1 lead in the best-of-seven divisional semifinal series with Game 4 scheduled for Friday night in North Charleston.
Mitch Hults and Brent Pedersen each added a goal to the win while defenseman Alexander Kuqali stepped up with three assists. Still, had it not been for goalie Connor Ingram, the outcome may have been a lot different. Ingram stopped 55 of 58 South Carolina shots, setting a new franchise record while outdueling his counterpart Parker Milner, who made 48 saves of his own.
Fejes’ winner, his third against the Stingrays in five games over two seasons and second in extra time, was vintage Fejes. With the teams playing at four-on-four, Ingram made a save on Jordan Samuels-Thomas. Mike Monfredo collected the puck and sent it to Kuqali in the Solar Bears defensive end. Kuqali headmanned it to Fejes who skated through center ice and into the South Carolina end. At one point surrounded by all four Stingrays players, Fejes fired a shot from the faceoff circle to Milner’s left that the goalie easily stopped. Fejes followed his shot and when two defenders went to a Solar Bears teammate, the speedy forward was all alone in the slot with the puck on his stick. In a flash, Fejes fired a shot to Milner’s stick side, beating him for the winner before taking a celebratory swan dive to the ice near the blueline as his teammates poured out to greet him.
The combined 110 shots between the two teams was a solid indicator of just how uptempo and intense the game was. With the series tied at one win apiece, game three was already set up as a pivotal moment in the series with the Stingrays having the middle three contests on their home sheet of ice.
Milner and Ingram were both under fire in the first period as the teams put a combined 32 shots on net (16 each) in the opening twenty minutes. Orlando held a 6-2 shots advantage five minutes in but easily could have been trailing had it not been for Ingram turning away Stingrays all-star Andrew Cherniwchan on a clean breakaway. It was just the first of a handful of big saves by the Saskatoon,Saskatchewan native.
Milner, who himself has been outstanding in the series so far, had a chance to deny a break-in when Orlando’s Colby McAuley got loose and went in on a partial breakaway. His shot missed the net but his momentum took him into the Stingrays netminder, nearly setting off an early brawl.
The Solar Bears cracked onto the scoreboard first just past the midpoint of the stanza, taking advantage of a defensive turnover. With a little over eight minutes remaining in the frame, Troy Bourke was the recipient of a giveaway and immediately sent the puck down to his fellow Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Hults who was on Milner’s doorstep. Hults got the goalie moving with a fake to the forehand before roofing a backhander into the cage for his third goal in two games.
That lead nearly became a tie score when with 1:03 remaining before the intermission, it appeared that South Carolina had the equalizer. A shot from the point found its way to Cherniwchan who redirected it home. Ingram immediately protested, forcing a discussion by the game officials. After a lengthy delay, the score was waived off as they ruled that Cherniwchan had used a “distinct kicking motion” in propelling the puck into the net, a play that replays on the live feed of the contest to viewers at home appeared to confirm.
Both sides continued to buzz the other’s net in the second period, forcing the netminders to be sharp and alert constantly. Milner faced another 16 Solar Bears shots, stopping all of them including a tested from Bourke in the second half of the frame.
Ingram was still sending the host Stingrays away empty, turning away ten South Carolina attempts. The problem was the Stingrays put eleven shots on net and that eleventh one tied the score. It came at the 6:41 mark during some four-on-four playing time when Samuels-Thomas and Matt Nuttle made a two-on-two foray into the Orlando end. As Samuels-Thomas forced the Solar Bears defense to back in, he dropped a pass to Nuttle who fired a backhander past Ingram for his first goal of the first season.
Tied at one at the start of the third period, Fejes began his takeover of the game. Just 1:27 into the final twenty, he took a pass from Kuqali and took off for the South Carolina net. Leaving a couple of defenders in his wake, Fejes walked in and rifled a wrist shot through Milner’s legs to put the Solar Bears up 2-1 and making Milner rue Manitoba’s failure to get into the playoffs.
Five minutes later, Fejes had another chance to pump up Orlando’s lead, During a penalty kill, he used his speed to create space and got a clear shot at the net. This time, however, Milner had the play read and his catching glove was quick and sure, snaring the puck before it could get past him.
Milner was not so lucky at the 9:26 mark when Pedersen, who spent quite a bit of time with Fejes in Manitoba, announced his return to the Solar Bears lineup. Kuqali again started the play, breaking up a play at center ice. He saw Pedersen speeding toward the Stingrays blueline and made a perfect pass that allowed his teammate to split the defense. Pedersen drove straight in and as he shot, a South Carolina player hit his stick, slightly altering the trajectory. The shot settled into the back of the net for Pedersen’s first goal in a while to give the visitors a 3-1 lead.
Almost lost in the Pedersen play was South Carolina’s Josh Gratton picking up a minor for unsportsmanlike conduct plus a ten-minute misconduct. The minor put Orlando on the power play but it played an even bigger part in the game. During the penalty kill, Cherniwchan got tied up with Solar Bears defenseman Matt Spencer. In the scrum, Spencer’s helmet was knocked off, forcing the blueliner off the ice. As he started off, he saw Cherniwchan get the puck for what would have been a sure breakaway. Spencer stayed on to stop Cherniwchan but incurred a minor penalty for playing without his helmet.
After the four-on-four expired, the Stingrays connected on the power play when Steve Johnson set up Samuels-Thomas for his first goal of the series at 11:53. Less than three minutes, Jonathan Charbonneau bounced a pass from behind the net off of Ingram’s back and across the goal line for his first of the post-season and a tie score with 5:33 left in regulation.
Neither goalie was ready for the game to be over and after Ingram stopped Samuel-Thomas on a shot with one tick left on the clock, the game went into overtime. In the first extra frame, Ingram played like an all-star, doing everything he could to deny the Stingrays a victory. He was tested early and often, including during a South Carolina power play in the last three minutes of the overtime, piling up 13 saves. Milner was not as busy but he did have to make several stops to keep the game going, finishing the stanza with seven saves.
As the game headed to a second overtime, the netminders again sparkled. This time it was Milner who made a number of jaw-dropping saves while Ingram matched him stop for stop. The teams took turns pinning the other in its defensive zone, leaving the crowd gasping with every chance that came close but failed to end the contest.
At the 8:49 mark, Orlando’s McAuley and South Carolina’s Cherniwchan tussled behind the Solar Bears net, forcing the officials to pull their whistles out to send the pair off with matching penalties. It left the teams each down a man and with the extra open ice, it was the perfect time for Fejes to weave his magic and again send the Stingrays home thinking what might have been.
Notes: Final shots were 58-52 in favor of South Carolina. The 52 shots by the Solar Bears set a new franchise record for shots on net in a playoff game while the 58 allowed was also a new record… The Solar Bears went 0-for-1 on the power play while the Stingrays finished 1-for-5… Fejes has now scored the game-winning tallies in the two longest playoff games played by Orlando since joining the ECHL. He also became the first player in the ECHL history of the team to notch two overtime scores… Kuqali’s three assists tied the single game record for most assists and points in a post-season contest by an Orlando player… Hults (two game goal), Bourke (two game assist) and Monfredo (two game assist) all extended personal streaks in the game… The Solar Bears are now 3-0 in post-season overtime games against the Stingrays and 4-2 in playoff games that have gone beyond sixty minutes overall… Friday’s Game 4 is set for a 7:05 p.m. start as is Saturday’s Game 5, which will also be played in North Charleston.
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